The Gathering in Jerusalem

Gathering in Jerusalem

 

It is now the second day of The Gathering. It is impossible to explain with words what I have experienced over the one and half days of the conference. Go to The Gathering website and connect to the conference ” live stream”. You will be blessed mightily – you will experience what worship will be like in heaven. It is also being videoed so you will be able to get a copy to bless your church.

The most amazing thing is the number of Chinese worshippers that are here from mainland China, at least 1500 hence the conference is being broadcast in English and Mandarin. Translation is available to many other languages as well.

God is acting in HIStory in His city and nation in a new and world transforming way. To see Israeli  Jewish and Arab Christian pastors impacted by the presence and passionate  worship of so many Asians was remarkable. They came on stage repenting of past sins and committing to unite to take the Gospel forward in a new way led only by the Holy Spirit. Only God is able to do what happened at this conference last night and this morning. I can’t wait to experience the worship again and to see what God will do with the rest of The Gathering.

You need to go online and experience it yourself.

Upcoming Trip to Athens and Jerusalem.

ICCC Athens Conf

I am attending two important events in October and November. The first starts this week in Athens. It is the International Christian Chamber of Commerce Conference, “Possessing The Land – It’s Time”. I hope to post reports on this Conference next week.

Last year ICCC was forced to re-evaluate what God wanted of us when He took both the President and Vice President home unexpectedly.

ICCC is not alone among Christian organisations and churches that are being shaken like this at their very foundations.

I was part of a Leadership Conference in Cyprus in February when the new International Board shared with the ICCC Boards of the Nations their vision for the future. This has now been fine tuned and will be presented at the Athens Conference under the banner “POSSESSING THE LAND – IT’S TIME”. I am excited about what God will do at this conference and of course the opportunity to meet up with many good friends. Watch this space for the reports I will post as time permits.

Gathering in Jerusalem822-banner

The second meeting I am attending which is a very important one is the 822 Gathering in Jerusalem November 10th to 13th.

“At this kairos hour, the Lord is calling forth a remnant, a representation of the family of believers worldwide, to come together as one new man in Jerusalem. In the power of unity submitted fully to the leadership of the Holy Spirit, we will stand in the gap and decree that the hour has come for the bride of Christ to wake up and to make herself ready for her bridegroom”.

check out the website http://www.822call.org.

In between the two conferences I am joining a tour “The Hidden Treasures of Israel” sponsored by Kingdom Builders and the Australian friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from Nov 2nd until Nov 10th. It also promises to be an exciting time.

I look forward to sharing with you insights into what God is doing at the “late hour”.

 

RADICAL EVANGELISM IN SOUTH AMERICA

Almost 2.5 million accepted Christ in one day

During the seventh International street evangelism “The Gospel changes” that took place on October 18, about 2,483 567 people accepted Christ, said the press-center of the movement “Gospel changes,” reports The Christian Telegraph.

The evangelism was attended by 26 countries: Austria, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, USA, France, Honduras, Mexico, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Russia, Ukraine, and Uruguay.

Recall that the main motto of the seventh evangelization was: “Together Save 2 million people.”

It is worth noting that during the last evangelism more than 1.6 million people were saved.

Such evangelism is held every three months. Any church of any denomination may participate in the international evangelism. (John 17 unity)

The vision of “The Gospel of change” was born in Venezuela. Due to the movement, which is now bearing its fruits in many different countries, the Gospel has been introduced to millions of people around the world. Despite the fact that the vision of “The Gospel of change” was born and began to spread mainly in the Spanish-speaking countries, it is actively coming to the English and Russian speaking world. The ministers from different countries gather at a huge conference in Venezuela, and the ministers from the Eastern European countries come to Spain to learn from their experience.

CHECK OUT THIS WEBSITE  www.evangelieizmenyaet.com/

When churches unite, it is an unstoppable force

This six minute video is of another story of city transformation when churches work together (John 17 unity). This time the city is Portland, Orgeon. Not too far from Whatcom County.

God is moving mightily in these last days. When we show the love of Christ to the hurting in our community, the city is transformed. The spiritual forces of darkness (demonic powers) disperse when the light of Christ shines brightly.

GOD transforms a community, where His church is One.

Before going to The Cross JESUS prayed:

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word; that they all may be one as You Father , are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that you sent me.”

John 17:20,21

What amazing transformation in the Whatcom County, Washington, population 210,000. Unity within the body of Christ (unity with diversity) and cities, counties are transformed. See the transformation for yourself in this twelve minute video.

 

Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify You,

Jesus on Cross

 

Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. John 17:1-3

What amazing words and JESUS spoke them knowing within hours He would be crucified. 

He also warned them; “Indeed the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think they are offering a service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have told you these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.” John 16:2-4 and”I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of Truth (Holy Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you.” John 16:12-14. 

Surely, this is proof enough, JESUS is who He said He was. Whatever He prophesied came to pass. It happened.

The HOLY SPIRIT did come upon the believers at Pentecost just as JESUS told them. It transformed them and empowered them to live their lives knowing they had eternal life. The Holy Spirit comes to ALL believers in JESUS, to empower them to live the Christian life. Christians know the truth because the Spirit of truth dwells within them.

JESUS also told them, He would be killed and resurrected in three days. Here in John 16:16, He said, ” A little while, and you will see me no longer; but again a little while, and you will see Me.” The disciples had no idea what JESUS was talking about. “JESUS knew that they wanted to ask Him, so He said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? John 16:19

“Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy.” John 16:20

We know these nobodies (fishermen and tax collectors) went on to change the world by preaching the Good News.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” John 3:16

Jesus Christ the Creator, God the Son, though totally sinless, took on human nature, so He could become our Redeemer. He suffered on our behalf the penalty for mankind’s sin, which is death and separation from God. He did this to satisfy the righteous demands of the holiness and justice of God, His Father. All who truly believe in Him, repent of their sin and trust in Him have eternal life in a restored relationship with their Creator God.

 

Terminally Ill and Eternally Full of Life

Gods-Not-Dead-ALS

Russell Wolfe is a producer for the recent hit GOD’S NOT DEAD and many other Christian movies. Recently diagnosed with ALS, Russell took to Facebook to contribute to spreading awareness and raising money for scientific research of this incurable disease – ALS also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease,

Regarding the Ice Bucket Challenge, Russell told Movieguide®, “So few people even know of the disease or even know what it is. I think it’s done a great job at raising awareness for that, but I felt that it was particularly good to link it to the fact that God’s not dead, mainly because I have faith that I’m healed, and I’ll receive that manifestation of that healing. Maybe there are some people I can encourage along the way.”

Encourage people he did. Within a week, his Ice Bucket Challenge had been shared over 34,000 times and over 3,000 comments flooded in with encouragement, prayers and others with ALS stories.

Moved by the huge response to the video, Russell said, “One thing that speaks specifically to me is the outpouring of people and their prayers. I’m so grateful for that. I’m actually taken back by how much it was shared, and how many people have included me in their prayers.”

When the news of his terminal diagnosis was revealed to him, Russell said his doctor was more surprised than he was because of Russell’s demeanor.

“I was so calm in reaction to the news,” Russell explained. “I’ve been through a lot of storms in my life, and God has certainly delivered me from each one. When I’ve had things that have happened that are bad, at the time, they might have seemed disastrous, but God has turned each and every one of them around so that in retrospect, I can look back at those, and I’m thankful that they happened, and I don’t feel any different about this. So when he gave me the news, I just looked at it as an opportunity to stand in my faith, and now we’ll just see how God uses this for his Glory.”

Romans 8:28 is a special encouragement to Russell, because God’s work and plan for his life is already so apparent.

“A part of the movie [GOD’S NOT DEAD] is sort of ironic, not only that I play the doctor that was delivering terminal news, and then I received that [same news] thereafter, but the letter that was in the movie that Kevin Sorbo read.

When we had the script, I felt that there needed to be a bridge between him being a solid atheist, and then converting to a Christian on the screen. So, I felt that while he was sitting in his office, he could pull out a letter from his mother. So, I wrote that letter. The idea behind that was, what would I tell my kids if I knew I was going to die at a young age? That letter that’s in the movie, I wrote it in that perspective. Again, the irony of writing that letter, and then getting a terminal diagnosis expresses the way I felt at that time and feel now knowing that I have this diagnosis.”

With his health deteriorating, Russell is still full of encouragement, faith and hope.

As he says, his message “is that God didn’t give this [ALS] to us. God didn’t give me ALS. I believe we live in a fallen world, and as such, bad things happen to good people. . . . What I do believe is that God can take any of those bad things and turn them into good. My message is to keep your faith. God is good all the time. He will turn things that are bad to the good. So, look for the hope in that.”

Pray for Russell Wolfe, his family and the thousands of others that suffer from ALS. Pray for physical healing through miracles and scientific advances through medicine, but especially, pray for a spiritual healing for all those who don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

edited article  by Ben Kayser Managing Editor, Movie Guide

 

 

TIME: YOUR MOST PRECIOUS RESOURCE

On Time

Contrast this pivotal resource of life with others, such as energy and finances, and a sharp distinction becomes obvious. While these other assets fluctuate, time constantly diminishes. No matter what one possesses, no matter the financial resources at your disposal, time cannot be purchased or stockpiled. One cannot gain access to additional time; you merely have the amount given to you.

So, if time is the most precious resource life offers, the question then becomes how do we use it wisely?

    1. Spend time in prayer. For contemporary believers this seems to be one of the more taxing tasks the Christian life demands. For, prayer takes time, and time is short and the day is long but how else do you build a relationship with your Creator other than spend time in prayer and in HIS WORD. Moreover HE said, “And ALL THINGS, whatever you ask in prayer, believing you will receive” Matthew 21:22. If you want to be a person who changes the course of history, you will pray and seek God’s will for your life. He has a plan for your life don’t miss it.
    2. Invest in building relationships. This certainly has the potential to multiply time. Think of a Christian parent’s relationship with their child, and the ripple effect this relationship can have for decades, if not centuries of time and on numerous other relationships. Their actions will not only have the potential to impact society for good but above all can have eternal significance.

Peter Kreeft, a Christian philosopher, offers an important understanding of time and prayer. He notes, “We have time and prayer backwards. We think time determines prayer, but prayer determines time. We think our lack of time is the cause of our lack of prayer, but our lack of prayer is the cause of our lack of time.” This understanding of the relationship of time to prayer is not a pithy saying to be taken lightly, but biblical insight into the significance of both. For the One who listens to the prayer knows about multiplication.

Matthew chapter 14 speaks to the ability of Christ to multiply scarce resources in order to maximize their potential. Yet, consider if the child had never offered his five loves and two fish. Christ’s ability to multiply would, at least in this instance, never been engaged.

Succinctly put, life in modern society is belligerently backwards. Modern life is arranged around tasks and duties which consume a large portion of the time given us each day. This utilitarian view of time has riddled modern society, families, and individuals with discontent, loneliness, and want of purpose.

How now should we live?

Remember The Lord’s Prayer – “Your Kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Invest your time in building God’s Kingdom on earth and you also build treasure in heaven which has ETERNAL value and significance. Don’t waste your time on building your Kingdom on earth, it is fleeting and ultimately brings no peace or joy.

Time is precious and limited, yet of eternal value. What makes it so is how you use it and whom you give it to. Begin now to start living eternally.

WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS

Lionel Ritchie preaching what the world needs on stage in Las Vegas – JESUS IS LOVE. Back in the eighties he was told to stop singing it and his other gospel songs or it would ruin his career. Well at the BET AWARDS show last Sunday night, what was meant to be a tribute to Lionel Ritchie was turned into a Gospel presentation by the renowned gospel singer Yolanda Adams as she “belted out” Lionel’s 1980’s hit ‘Jesus is Love’. It got a standing ovation. Make sure you watch to the end of the video to see what Lionel does with the crowd.